Rovers linked to a swoop for Sky Blues man Walker
BRISTOL Rovers are reported to be among the clubs interested in signing Coventry City striker Tyler Walker.
The Sunday Mirror stated that the Pirates are one of a number of Sky Bet League One sides keen on the 25-year-old, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Portsmouth in the third tier.
During his stint on the south coast, Walker scored just one goal in 15 appearances, with nine starts, and was plagued by inconsistency, failing to provide the firepower required.
However, the 25-year-old does have pedigree at League One level, having enjoyed a fine campaign for Lincoln City in 2019/20 while on loan from Nottingham Forest, which led to a permanent switch to Coventry.
Walker, the son of former England defender Des, has failed to make the first-team breakthrough for the Sky Blues and, with one year left on his contract, boss Mark Robins could well be ready to listen to offers.
Rovers have a busy summer ahead of them as they look to enhance the squad that got them promoted from League Two with a need for more attacking options outside of firstchoice and top-scorer Aaron Collins, target man Ryan Loft and Harvey Saunders. Veterans Leon Clarke and
Brett Pitman will be released when their contracts expire next month.
Walker is similar to Collins in the sense that he is not an out-and-out central striker but can play in a variety of systems, either through the middle or from wide areas, with Pompey boss Danny Cowley branding him a “ghost” given his ability to drift unchallenged into goalscoring positions.
Speaking to BBC Radio Bristol last week, manager Joey Barton revealed Rovers’ recruitment drive for the summer is well under way.
“We don’t intend to just take part next season. We’ve got a good side, if we can keep a lot of that together, that would help with continuity,” he said. “If not, we’ve got good contacts in good areas and I’m sure we’ll build a good competitive football team next season.
“We’re really excited, to finish in the manner we did and the energy in the stadium. We’ve just go to keep building on that. We want to be as successful as we can next season and take our fans on an incredible ride.”
However, with Rovers also keen to re-sign all their loan stars from last season, and talks ongoing regarding Antony Evans’ contract, there are a many moving pieces to their transfer business, which makes identifying exactly who are leading targets and who are in their secondary plans difficult.